Join resident artist Ali McCann and artistic physicist Raghda Abdel Khaleq in conversation with correspondences' Emma Thomson (pictured clockwise left to right). The artists will reflect on their mutual passion for and pursuit of connections between their artistic practices and science.

The starting point for our conversation will be Ali's project, Campus: A study of educational, domestic, and deep dark space (In perpetual flux) 2022. The project widens the parameters of her search for nostalgia to encompass the fascinating field of dark matter, a by-product of her upbringing in Stawell, country Victoria, where today, the Southern Hemisphere's first-ever direct-detection dark matter facility now resides.

Aside from playing into her long-standing fascination with space and the intersections between art and science, the mine is also a site of nostalgia for Ali. Her childhood home was adjacent to the mine. She recalls her house shaking during mining excavations, the world and her domestic space alive with a deep, dark sense of magic/potential that emanated from the earth far below.

Note:—Conversation 2-3 pm, question time 3-3:30 pm. We’d love your questions in advance! Physics, maths, photography, painting, spirituality, education, ‘sciart’, and everything in between. All welcome! Email us at info@correspondences.work. Please RSVP for free to help us plan. If you’d like a cuppa, select a ticket for a coffee or pot of tea.

The artists
Ali McCann is a multidisciplinary artist known for her highly staged photographic compositions that evoke the nostalgic and illusionary tendencies of the photographic image. Her work examines the aesthetics of education, taking its cues from outmoded photography guides, amateur artworks, and the decor of educational and domestic spaces of the 1970s and 1980s.

Raghda Abdel Khaleq is a Physics PhD candidate at the Australian National University with a BSc in Fine Art (UNSW) and a passion for interdisciplinary practices between art and science. She is part of the Australian Research Centre (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics: 'I am excited to use physics as inspiration for the ideas and processes in my art, working to combine my two passions.’

Credit: Bohr II © Ali McCann